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Show uu TWO PIONEERS OF NONSENSE Nonsense, llko the poor, wo havo always with us. But as a deliberate, delicious, conscious contribution to that criticism of llfo which wo call literaturo its advont Is somewhat re cent, datlnc from the year IS 16, when Edward Lear published his first 'J'Book of Nonsense." Boforo that time, says the Rosary Magazine, the nearest approach to this literary rara avis was to bo found In the nursery jlnglos of Mother Moth-er Goose or In the chap-books of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Those cheap looks, or chap-books, as they were called, wero printed on coarse grey paper, and decorated with hideous wocd cuts, often guiltless of any connection with the text They were hawked from door to door by tho chapmen or Cheap Johns of tho period. Edward Lear, the sponsor for tho "Jumbles" and Lewis Carroll, tho discoverer dis-coverer and princlpnl explorer of "Wonderland," are the grand masters of tho revels In that happy-go-lucky world whore sense Is abrogated for something more sonelble. Edward Iar (1S12-2S) began his career aB an artist's draftsman, glad to exchange "uncommon queor shctc'b-cs" shctc'b-cs" for a few shillings, which in turn woro converted Into broad and qhoeso. loiter on he did some work frr tho Earl of Derby, gave a few lessons to Queen Victoriu, and made a number of drawings of colored birds for tho Zoologlcnl society. Thore was no hint of "Tho Owl and the Pussy Cat" or of "Tho Pobblo That Has No Toes" In all this. But there were hints of famo nnd worldly success and qulto a bit of money. As lato. as 1840 tho future author of "Tho Pelican Chorus" was traveling at his leisure over Italy and the Ionian Islands, Is-lands, painting landscapes and publishing pub-lishing nn occasional volume of travels, trav-els, all unconscious of tho high mis-scion mis-scion upon which he was to enter six years later. "Ho was naturally of a melancholy 'temporamont all our mlrthbakers have heen sad-hearted folkn accepting accept-ing life with a half smllo and half sigh perhaps the beat way to tako It after all. But 1S4C came at last, and with It the first "Book of Nonsense." Non-sense." It was a triumph of elaborate elab-orate seriousness applied to brilliantly brilliant-ly ridiculous ideas, all thrown Into tho now-famlllar Limerick form "Lear disclaimed the credit goner-ally goner-ally accorded him of being tho Inventor of this comical five-lined stanza, with Its jorky. ready-to-halt motor, it was suggested to him by n friend, who thought It peculiarly well suited for short Jlnglos of a sorlo-comlc sort. But when the British public came upon tho new booL. with its curious versolets and 'uncommon queer sketches." it felt, sure It had stumbled upon a 1 It -orary novelty, and without more adn or parloy credited to Lear the form, as well aB the matter. Not long aftor the advont of tho Pelicans, an Oxford professor was prevailed pre-vailed upon to publish a luuc talc eu-titled eu-titled "Alico's Adventures In Wonderland,' Wonder-land,' a storv he had smui foj- ti delight of his litlo friend, Allco Lid-del. Lid-del. The first copy was sent to Miss Alice herself on July i. 18Gn. Tho second sec-ond copy was sont to Princess Boa-trice, Boa-trice, and Queen Victoria was so do-lighted do-lighted with It that she wrote to ask If the author had written any other .books. The next mall brought to the royal palacn "Tho Condensation of Detormi-4nnnta" Detormi-4nnnta" and "Curlosa Mathematics;" 'two learned volumes addressed to the serious and syllogistic. On the title pnee appeared the names of Charles Lutwidgo Dodgson Lutwldge, Anglicized, Angli-cized, becomes Lewis: Charles, Latinized, Latin-ized, becomes Carolus. or Carroll. So easv It Is to transform a dry-as-dust .mathematician Into a marvel-working necromancer. Tho author of "Th Condensation of Dotormlnants" nnd tho wizard or "Wonderlnnd'.wero ostr and tho same person. |